TURN OTHER CHEEK
Bx. deacon: I ‘forgive’ subway slugger
An elderly Catholic deacon says he forgives the man who suckerpunched him at a Bronx subway turnstile — and revealed that he was hit so hard he “saw stars.”
Frederick Kurr, 74, said his attacker — who is still being hunted by police — asked him to not yell after slugging him in the cheek, but he told the man to “pick on someone your own age.”
“Although he didn’t ask for forgiveness or say I’m sorry, I do forgive him from the bottom of my heart,” Kurr said in an exclusive interview with The Post Friday.
The deacon learned on New Year’s Eve he would be transferred from a church in Puerto Rico to start a new job at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Belmont section on Wednesday.
On Tuesday morning he was taking the subway to look for an apartment for him and his daughter when he received the very unholy welcome to New York.
Kurr initially thought his assailant was going to help him get through the turnstile, because he had fumbled with his Metro-Card at the Kingsbridge Road D train station .
“He didn’t say anything. He just came out of nowhere. He turned his body towards me. I thought he wanted to help me with the card,” Kurr said.
“He looked me in the eyes and the whack came immediately. He hit me on the right cheek. All the right side of my face felt the blow. He hit me with all his might and power, and he doesn’t know me.
“I literally saw stars for quite a few seconds,” Kurr recounted.
“Don’t shout,” the attacker allegedly told Kurr when he yelled for help. “I just felt like punching someone.”
“Why didn’t you look for someone your age and size and not a senior citizen?” the deacon responded.
Kurr, who refused medical attention on scene, later went to Montefiore Medical Center for neck pain, cops said.
“They are going to do an MRI to make sure nothing is wrong in the head. He hit me hard. The pain has been less, but I still feel it, definitely. I trust in God that everything is going to be OK.”
His daughter, Heidi Kurr, said: “To get sucker-punched for no reason at all . . . that’s sad. I am scared for him.”
The attacker remained at large Friday, and police released a surveillance image of the masked suspect.
“I believe this has to be stopped so no more senior citizens will be victims of his,” Kurr said.